


You Came Back

by KatieComma



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [8]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: First Kiss, Get Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pining Idiots, So much angst it hurts, Tumblr Prompt, after season 3, seriously, this one hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 09:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21354082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieComma/pseuds/KatieComma
Summary: It seemed appropriate to title this for the prompt I received."You Came Back" for MacDaltonJack's gone after Kovacs, Mac is falling apart.
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: Tumblr Ficlets [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1414561
Comments: 27
Kudos: 129





	You Came Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rai_Knightshade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rai_Knightshade/gifts).

> Thanks for the prompt!!!! How perfect and appropriate!!
> 
> This got SOOOO much more angsty than I had intended.

Mac hurts.

All the time.

Jack left, and he left this bitter, acerbic woman in his place.

Desi.

Desi who gets joy in surprising people when they're compromised and won’t stay for a beer after a mission.

Desi who won’t become part of the family.

Mac misses his protector, his friend, his brother in arms, the man he loves. He misses Jack more and more everyday.

At first he’d been bitter. _Jack doesn’t want to stay, then fuck him, he can leave._

Mac had thought he’d be able to move on. They’d only been together for, what, something like 8 years; day in and day out, saving each other’s asses, laughing together. Mac and Jack against the world. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle.

Apparently there is one thing. Because Jack left him behind.

And now Mac hurts all the time.

And when Jack left, he said goodbye. It seemed definite. Final. Somehow Jack knew he wasn’t coming back, or didn’t plan to when everything was said and done. Maybe he’d finally retire to the ranch like he’d always talked about.

Mac thought that goodbye meant forever, and so he’d decided to let Jack go.

But he couldn’t. Jack is under his skin. Jack is in his blood, with every single beat of his heart, Jack is there in every moment of every day, swimming in memory.

Every corner of Mac’s house is infected with Jack. The Phoenix too, nowhere is safe.

Desi comes in and talks about getting calls from Jack. Mac’s phone never rings. Punishment for not calling from Nigeria, Mac guesses. Jack’s right to be mad about that still, but Mac had needed to get away. 

After his father’s revelation, Mac had been vulnerable. Every second of every day that injured man inside him wanted to reach out for Jack, wanted Jack to hold him and tell him everything would be alright. But that wasn’t… Jack didn’t feel that way, and it had been too hard for Mac to keep it inside. Harder by the day. So he’d run to Nigeria. He’d listened to Jack’s messages over and over, but couldn’t pick up the phone and just talk to him. He knew his brain would spill his feelings everywhere.

And then Nasha happened. And he really had loved her. But they were from different places in more than one way, and it just couldn’t work. But he’d tried so hard. Video calls and long distance longing and offers to visit. In the end he knew it wouldn’t work, but he’d hoped that somehow she could free him of his feelings for Jack. He should have known better.

And now Nasha is gone, and Jack is gone, replaced with Desi who laughs at morbid things and calls him nerd without feeling or fun behind it. 

And Mac aches inside all the time. 

He sees Riley with Billy.

Bozer and Leanna are so happy.

Mac’s house is empty. He drinks alone more often than not.

Sometimes when he drinks too much he cries, or he has dreams from the sandbox or Murdoc. There’s no one there to comfort him. No one who understands and wants to help. No Jack.

There were days, when Mac’s phone would ring in the middle of the night. He’d pick up and hear harsh breathing on the other end. “I’m coming Jack,” was all he’d say before he’d jump in the Jeep and speed to Jack’s place. They’d sit up the rest of the night and talk about funny things, watch light hearted movies, until daybreak when they would talk about the bad stuff, once the sun was up and the shadows were chased away. 

Jack had done the same for Mac more than a time or two. When Mac woke up screaming and crying and nothing could soothe. Jack could. Sometimes Bozer would have to call Jack, because Mac was so lost in the past. But Jack would be there with his soft voice and callused hands to pull Mac back from the fire.

Now Mac just woke up screaming and crying alone. No Jack. Not even Bozer, who couldn’t really understand but would try to help. Now it’s just fear and anger and grief boiling under his skin until it fades hours later and his body is wracked with pain from curling into a ball in the cold corner of the room.

Mac sits alone on the deck. No one came over tonight, so he hasn’t even bothered to light the fire, or turn on the deck lights. He just sits and looks out at the city, shrouded in his own little dark corner. Missing Jack.

The doorbell rings.

It’s late. Too late for visitors.

Mac checks his watch: 1:27 AM

Curious, and wary, he gets up and goes to the door.

A peek through the window at the side of the door shows him camouflage, but not much more in the dark through frosted glass.

Mac opens the door a crack, and then flings it wide when he sees Jack.

“Hey hoss,” Jack says, and his voice is rough like sandpaper. “You got a minute?”

Mac rushes forward and takes Jack into his arms. Is it real? Or did he fall asleep on the deck and he’s dreaming. Because he’s had this dream before. And it’s wonderful and perfect until he wakes up again full of pain.

But Jack feels real under his hands. And Jack’s arms circling him feel real too; sturdy and hard with muscle. One hand comes up to cradle the back of Mac’s head. Mac tucks his face into Jack’s neck and smells gun oil and the stale air of a long flight.

“You came back,” Mac says, and cringes at the desperation and awe in his voice.

“Course I did hoss,” Jack says and his voice is wrecked. Maybe he’s sick? Is that why he’s back? Or maybe the mission took a toll on him. “Couldn’t stay away from you.”

Those words. Mac really leans into the meaning he wants. But Jack just means that they’ve been friends so long right? Always there to support each other.

Jack’s body shakes, and Mac pushes back to look into his face. Jack struggles to hold Mac close, but it’s too late. Mac sees the tears. He brings his hands up and brushes the salty drops away with his thumbs. “What’s wrong Jack?” Mac asks. “Is everything ok? Are you ok?”

Jack’s arms are still tight around Mac. They’re close. It’s intimate. Mac wants to live in the moment before they push away and pretend that they just shared an emotional moment between bros and nothing more.

“I’m fine Mac, really I am,” Jack says. “Except…” He looks down, his cheeks suddenly red.

Jack’s cheeks are sandpaper under Mac’s palms. “Except?” Mac prompts. “Come on man, we tell each other everything, right?”

Jack looks back up, and hope sparks in his eyes, deep down where Mac knows to look for it. And suddenly Jack leans forward and Mac doesn’t care about anything else because he leans into Jack too. And their lips meet and it’s… not the perfect kiss he’s imagined so many times, it’s imperfect and tastes like Jack was sleeping on the plane when they open their mouths to each other. But Mac wouldn’t trade it for anything, because in its imperfection it’s absolutely intoxicating. Their tongues can’t find rhythm together, their mouths uncoordinated.

When they stop for breath, Mac keeps his eyes closed, afraid he’s still dreaming on the deck and he’ll wake up when he opens his eyes.

“Damnit,” Jack says quietly.

And it’s perfect, and breaks the tension, and Mac laughs. All the hurt inside him uncoils and he relaxes into Jack’s arms. He opens his eyes to see Jack smiling back at him. And god he missed that smile.

“Damnit, what?” Mac asks.

“Damnit, I sat on that flight from Lisbon and went over this whole thing about a zillion times in my mind dude,” Jack says, “and this was absolutely the opposite of what was supposed to happen. There was talking, lots of talking-”

“Always is with you,” Mac says. And then he boldly leans in and kisses Jack again. Soft this time, leaving passion and tongues out of it. Something chaste and gentle.

Jack breathes against Mac’s cheek when they part and chases his lips for one more quick peck before he nuzzles his nose against Mac’s.

“We were always pretty good at communicating without all the talking,” Mac says.

“Then why’d you let me do so much of it all these years? The talking, I mean,” Jack asks, opening his eyes to meet Mac’s gaze. Holy shit Mac missed those deep beautiful brown eyes focused on him.

“I just like it when you talk,” Mac says.

“Maybe we should…” Jack leans back dramatically and looks around the street. “Take this show inside, huh?”

“You read my mind,” Mac says before he drags Jack back into the house, not letting go of him, their feet tangling awkwardly together while they laugh.

They won’t realize until the morning that Jack’s army bag is still sitting out on the porch, long forgotten.


End file.
